From YouTube Sketch To Oscar Nom: ‘Jane Austen’s Period Drama’ Is A Comedy Of Menstrual Mayhem

When Jane Austen’s 250th birthday rolled around, most admirers celebrated with rereads of “Pride and Prejudice,” but Julia Aks and Steve Pinder marked the occasion with something far less expected: an Oscar-nominated Regency comedy about menstruation — and they dropped it on YouTube.

The period piece about periods, a 13-minute short titled “Jane Austen’s Period Drama,” is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards, set for March 15.

Written and directed by Aks and Pinder, the film is set in England in 1813 and follows Miss Estrogenia “Essy” Talbot, played by Aks, who gets her period just as her long-awaited marriage proposal arrives. Her suitor, Mr. Dickley (Ta’imua), mistakes the blood for a life-threatening injury and rushes off to fetch a doctor. In his absence, Essy’s sisters urge her to protect the engagement by hiding the truth. When he returns, Essy makes a bold choice, offering a candid — and hilariously detailed — explanation instead.

“The idea came to me as a silly 3-minute sketch,” Aks said. “But when I asked a group of friends for funny period stories, there was this outpouring of anecdotes — some hilarious, but some deeply tragic and heartbreaking — that made me think there may be more heart in this idea than I realized.”

That heart — paired with sharp comic timing and lavish period detail — has resonated widely. The film premiered at the 2024 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and went on to screen at more than 50 festivals, winning over 30 awards. Among them: the Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film at the 2024 Cleveland International Film Festival, the Overall Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film at the 2024 Indy Shorts International, and the Jury Award for Comedy at the 2025 Aspen Shortsfest.

On Valentine’s Day, the duo surprised fans by releasing the film on Aks’ YouTube channel, where it quickly drew more than 80,000 views in just a few days. For the pair — who first built a following with musical and sketch comedy videos, including a viral Julie Andrews parody of Ariana Grande’s “7 RINGS” — the move felt intentional.

“We cut our teeth on YouTube, so having the film live on my channel now feels like a homecoming,” said Aks.

“YouTube is the most accessible stage in the world,” said Pinder. “We love that a film about something so universal can be seen without barriers.”

Both filmmakers trace their comic precision to years in theater. “We often talk about how our time on stage informed our filmmaking,” said Aks. “Doing performance after performance in front of a live audience, we each fine-tuned our comedic timing. That timing is what we relied on in the editing room for ‘Jane Austen’s Period Drama’.”

“We both have an intense respect for the audience,” Pinder said. “We still feel that connection that we felt doing shows and performing, even though we’re now working in a different medium.”

The project even attracted two-time Oscar winner Dame Emma Thompson, who joined in November 2025 as “Executive Menstrual Advisor” — a deliberately cheeky credit in place of executive producer.

“We never expected the film to have this much reach,” Pinder said. “We set out to make something that we love, something we could be proud of, something that was unmistakably us.”

“To see it received in this way has been beyond our wildest dreams,” Aks said.